


Unit

by mumbled_jumbles



Category: Naruto
Genre: Abuse of Authority, Akatsuki - Freeform, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, BAMF Nara Shikamaru, BAMF Uchiha Itachi, BAMF Yamanaka Ino, Blood and Injury, Developing Relationship, F/M, Gen, I just want these kids to be happy man, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Torture, Konoha bashing, M/M, No Uchiha Massacre, Politics, Shinobi, Team 10, Team as Family, Team ten centric, Treason, i don't know where i'm going with this, nothing too graphic though
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-05
Updated: 2019-06-05
Packaged: 2020-04-08 05:25:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19100590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mumbled_jumbles/pseuds/mumbled_jumbles
Summary: "Konoha is first, and your humanity is second. Serve your village well, and it will have no place at all..."Eleven years ago, Uchiha Itachi defied an order, and, eleven years ago, Ino, Chouji, and Shikamaru entered the Academy. Now, the trio are full-fledged model Konoha shinobi, and Itachi has disappeared, allegedly into the ranks of the feared and hated Akatsuki. His legacy is one of fear, not of him so much as of his fate. Everybody knows that those who are not loyal to their village are destined to suffer. Thirteen year old Itachi was a warning, and one well-heeded.But now, something rebellious is brewing in Konoha once again. Disillusioned by the Konoha shinobi lifestyle and desperate to protect the ones she loves, Yamanaka Ino just might be the next ninja to challenge Konoha's corrupted shinobi sysem...and with her friends and comrades by her side, she just might survive long enough to spread a revolution.





	Unit

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own any of the characters in this chapter; what little plot there is, however, is mine, haha! Anyway, I wrote most of this one sitting when I was feeling really angsty and cynical, and well, it's actually not awful, I don't think! As always, please review! I read all of your comments and they do really help make me a better writer. Your input is always appreciated:) I hope you enjoy reading this!  
> -Rose
> 
> Also, it's probably important to note that in this fic, Ino is 18, Chouji is 19, and Shikamaru is 16.

 

Shikamaru is away on a mission again.

 

Ino knows that this shouldn't bother her; they are, after all, _shinobi_ first and foremost; this is the life to which they committed when they entered the Academy together—Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji—all those years ago.

 

She remembers as if it were yesterday, receiving the acceptance letter, a rather trivial formality, really, since entry was practically guaranteed, but her parents had still called her from where she was arranging lilacs and scorpion grasses into small bouquets, and smiled as she thumbed the word, _Academy_ , eyes widening even though she had been expecting this.

 

"It's beyond tradition _,_ " Ino's father had always emphasized, "for the Yamanaka, Nara, and Akimichi clans to send their children to the academy together. You will make many alliances throughout your life, even with the…restrictions of the lifestyle. But you will only ever be a part of one unit." He had repeated this again on the first day of the academy, not bothering to accompany Ino to the towering array of buildings, only distantly visible from the Yamanaka clan dwellings. Instead they had met with Shikamaru and Choji, and their fathers, just outside the clan property.

 

"You will go to the academy together," Shikaku had instructed, "and you will look out for each other there. The rest will follow the Cycle of History." His eyes were gentle, but his voice held a certain resolve. And Shikamaru had been still and slouching and Choji fidgety and nervous and so Ino had stretched out two skinny arms to grab their hands in her own. And Shikamaru had sighed and Choji had blushed, and somehow Ino felt then that the Cycle of History had begun a little early for them.

 

That was eleven years ago.

 

They are active ninja now, at the disposal of the village, to destroy and be destroyed, as the situation demands.

 

Shikamaru is the only one away on a mission now, though. He's still a _jounin_ but Ino knows that the title holds little weight at this point. Konoha may not be in consonance with its history, but through the ages, its leaders have all, without fail, wielded their _shinobi_ ruthlessly well.

 

Ino knows his missions contain the danger usually reserved for ANBU; it only makes sense, she supposes, for although he has pawed off Konoha's leaders' attempts to recruit him to the elite unit—Ino and Choji made sure of that—Shikamaru is far too beautiful a weapon to waste. He is still growing into the body of a man, can still be passed off as a weak and lazy child, but beneath that ridiculous ponytail there is a daggerlike intellect, a cerebral masterpiece. There— _there_ is a mind that can win wars, and what is any nation if not selfish?

 

So, Shikamaru is sent away to save the village, to devise complex plans to trap groups of enemy- _nin,_  fresh out of a different academy with different allegiances, who stray too close to Konoha's borders on training missions, to cleanly slaughter those who appear to be adults and force the children to return to their villages, alive, with a new sort of knowledge. Of course, it can easily be argued that those children signed up for such fates too, when they were scarcely old enough to write.

 

There are also, of course, the infiltration missions, where Shikamaru is sent to foreign nations, to plan and engineer and use force as necessary to eavesdrop on the top secret meetings of the leaders of _those_ countries, to learn about _their_ classified histories of genocide and manipulation and report back on how they plan to continue such trends. And there are the border-control missions, to intercept terrorist-humanitarians smuggling cheap medicine and basic resources into Konoha's strategically-placed slums.

 

Terrorists are granted no right to trial under Konoha law. ANBU are instructed to kill them on the spot.

 

(When Ino isn't bitterly cursing Shikamaru's duties, she is grateful that he, at least, does not have the legal distinction of ANBU and is smart enough to weave his way around some deaths.)

 

After the first few of these missions, Shikamaru had barely spoken for almost two weeks, which, even by his ten non-talkative standards, was enough to provoke worry in the rest of the old Team Seven. He was just fourteen then, and baby fat still stubbornly clung to his cheeks and his forehead only reached the bridge of Ino's nose; or, it would if he wasn't always slouching.

 

Still, Ino and Choji had kept their distance at first; they knew about the disillusionment that most ninja experienced near the beginning of their professional careers—they all knew that, Shikamaru more so than any of them probably, lazy genius that he was.

 

Shikamaru turned sixteen two weeks ago, and Ino climbed in through his window at midnight, and tiptoed soundlessly downstairs to open the door for Choji, who had brought a small cake and two bottles of sake, smuggled from his parents' basement. It had been a good night. Choji ate most of the cake, though he and Ino saved most of the sake for a certain "lazy and ungrateful birthday boy."

 

"What's the point of giving somebody alcohol when they're already barely awake?" said birthday boy had mildly queried, rubbing his eyes and grumbling good naturedly.

 

"Shut up," Ino had retorted, cheerfully, "And drink up." And Shikamaru had _smiled_ as she waggled the bottle triumphantly, and reached out and seized it before any liquor could slosh out and stain his floor. Later that night/morning, when they are all more than a bit drunk, Ino had pinched his rosy cheek and marveled at the sharp angles that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

 

"You're a…man now…" she'd said, nose scrunched in confusion. And Shikamaru had tilted his head out of her hold _just so,_ and muttered something that sounded vaguely like, " _troublesome woman,"_ though his voice was too slurred and low in pitch for Ino to tell for sure, and beat him up for it. (Birthday luck, she had supposed).

 

"Nope, never mind. You're still a child." Ino quickly amended, with a sense of relief and a hazy discomfort.

 

Relief, because she's only ever known Shikamaru as a child, and she is _happy_ with what they've managed to hold onto.

 

Discomfort, because a _shinobi_ child of Konoha can decimate dozens without fully growing up.

 

Ino had wrapped her arms around her boys then, tightly, and Shikamaru had sputtered around the gulp of sake he was in the process of swallowing and Choji had giggled, and she had vowed then, firmly resolute, that they would stick together through this ugly, ugly world. _She would make sure of it_.

 

Of course, she's already failing at that self-assigned charge because Shikamaru is on a mission, departed yesterday morning,  and he's _alone._

 

His baby fat is mostly gone, and he appears sturdier, stronger, but he otherwise wears sixteen like he has worn the rest of his years, Ino thinks; that is, with great airs of reluctance. And sure, he has a partner, undoubtedly some other, weathered, stalwart _shinobi_ who will keep him company and fight alongside him like any good comrade, but that doesn't mean that they can _protect_ him. Not like his unit _._ For such an orchestrated alliance might lend Shikamaru some protection, but Ino and Choji would gladly lend their _lives,_ if it ever were to come to that, and Ino has been on enough botched missions to know that could make all the difference.

 

She isn't on a botched mission now though, or any mission at all. She's at the flower shop now, working the early afternoon shift—which is bound to get busy soon with a crowd , as Konoha's villagers temporarily depart from their mundane jobs for their lunch breaks. (She supposes the word mundane might be a little harsh, but it's difficult to see the office jobs and hierarchical layers of incompetency known as "businesses" as anything else after over a decade of being a ninja. Because Konoha _nin_ are nothing if not elite; the village's dirty work is simply too important to be put in the hands of the sup-par. Along the road to become a _shinobi,_ the incompetent are weeded out, either by the rigorous examinations one must pass along the way, or by death's judgmental and unapologetic hand.) Ino is jolted from her thoughts by sound of the glass double-doors at the entrance to Yamanaka Flowers swiftly swinging open, letting in a warm gust of early-October air. She blinks; in less than a second, her face has morphed into a welcoming smile.

 

Ino isn't putting together bouquets like she did in childhood. No, she's at the pale blue tiled counter, serving customers and taking care of any problems the family business runs into along the way. For no longer is she the too-thin daughter, hidden in the back room, among the flowers. It's her business now, too, not just her parents'. Her name is even on the business contract now, since the legal age of adulthood for _shinobi_ is seventeen, instead of twenty, like it is for normal citizens. The reasoning generally given for this is something about how _shinobi_ have a higher degree of mental and physical strength and maturity, due to the rigorous training and field experience. Ino figures that the law is really in place is to maximize the size of the Konoha ninja force without having to deal with parental consent, especially for children from lucrative clans. Clans are a practically formidable force, proof of the phrase "power in numbers." Although, clans are far from devoid of internal corruption, they are bound by blood, and they protect their own. With concentrated groups of powerful ninja, they have leverage against the other Konoha council members and the _Hokage_. 

 

"Welcome to Yamanaka Flowers!" She trills, and pushes all ugly, worried, thoughts to the back of her mind, where they wage a silent and steady war against what has been taught and retaught and reinforced for the past eleven years:

 

 _Konoha is first, and the_ shinobi _is second. Wear your_ hitai-ate _with pride. This is a peaceful village—peace comes at a price. Loyalty is your most worthy trait. We will grow it in you, breed it in you, bury it with you. This is a peaceful village. The peace of Konoha is first and the peace of the_ shinobi _is second. Clean your_ hitai-ate _with soap and warm water. Loyalty is your most worthy trait. We will grow it in you, breed it in you, bury it with you, if you ever are buried at all._

 

_Konoha is first, and your humanity is second. Serve your village well, and it will have no place at all._


End file.
